Southern paradise / 南方楽園

A retrospective of Paul Gauguin is starting tomorrow at Tate Modern in London. In relation to this, there are TV and radio programs, talking about this artist’s life – it seems a lot of people think he was immoral. Perhaps we have to see his works, to judge if he was a bit out of the way or was lucky to have a different approach to others of that time.

The title of this picture ‘Arearea’ means joyousness in Polynesian language. Interpretation of the original by engraver is very interesting – it was a challenge within limited printing colours as well, and it is done really well.